


Swan Song: Agape

by berrybliss



Series: Fairy Tale Retellings [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fairy Tale Retellings - Swan Lake, I just borrowed the swan day and night concept, M/M, Vague Futuristic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 00:54:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13306974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berrybliss/pseuds/berrybliss
Summary: When a plague sweeps the globe, humanity turns to Swans for help. Their songs can heal the most grievous of illnesses, causing dependence to their kind that results in bloodshed.Kuroko is a Swan; Akashi is a human. Sharing a pair bond in a decaying world, all they ask is more time – to make up for the time that they have lost, far from each other’s reach. Unfortunately, the world isn’t a wish granting factory. Not their world, at least.“This is not a world where you can love freely anymore.”





	Swan Song: Agape

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: @ScarletAkiChin this is it blame Barbie  
> I’m sorry akakuro  
> I'm having my midterms rn and I decided to post this. This was actually finished on december 31 last year xDD  
> Enjoy! :)

Birdless skies in broad daylight.

It has been a while since all sorts of birds have gone into hiding. Akashi has borne witness to it for a year now. They all come out at night, convinced that there is nothing to fear. After all, the bullets are only fired during the day, when the skies are a pale blue hue – or simply when there is sunlight, and all that lives cries for the white birds who fall from their domain – flightless, darting down towards the earth.

If there is anything that defines birds, it is their flight. Take that away and they are not so out of reach after all.

_But Swans._

Swans have learned how to hide in the trees, in the caverns, in the most unsuspicious of homes. They have been forced to, over the years. They are not so hard to find, however – humans are creative in their ways. It is ironic that years ago, man struggled to finds its own wings – though now, it is clear that they can reach heights that no bird can.

_“Akashi!”_

He averts his pointed gaze from the skies stretching above them, and meets the eyes of Hayama, who has been trying to call his attention.

“You always go off somewhere far away when you look at the sky.” He points out offhandedly.

Reo’s long, black locks dance in the wind. His green eyes take on a concerned look. “What’s on your mind, Sei-chan?”

His eyes dart around the compound, where new carrier trucks are entering the gates. Sunset approaches, it seems, because that is so often the case when the trucks start coming in.

“Just the past.” He replies curtly. Then, he is told by one of the cadets that Midorima wishes to see him.

There seems to be no end to it all.

* * *

The Black Plague had emerged two years ago. It took many lives in their beds. Feverish, these people were, but it had seemed nothing serious, until doctors found that there was no existing cure within their hands. Victims, upon death, became pure black corpses, save for their eye sockets which were a sickly yellow. Their veins popped out in several places, and their flesh smelled of rot within the first day of death.

Controlled samples of the virus were not viable all throughout the trials that the most scientific of minds conducted. They had sporadic behavior, unpredictable and without any observable patterns that could be deduced.

All hope seemed lost - so the world turned to the Swans, because there seemed no other choice. They started hunting them down, one by one.

 _(Aim for their wings.)_   

It is no mere rumor that the voice of a swan can cure all ailments. This had seemed an old maid’s tale at first, until people tried it for themselves. They had placed their hopes on this – it is why swans are so sought out, because this is a truth. Swans are capable of saving lives at the expense of their own. They take the symptoms of those whom they heal, eventually dying a slow, painful death.

Only a few remain in the face of the planet – humanity will be lost without them. 

The people in power hadn’t always known about their special abilities, or at least, had never seen it happen with their bare eyes. Akashi had. He remembers lying on a bed, his mother holding a hand to his forehead. A blurry haze of blue stands near his bedside, small hands clasped together as if in prayer. A song lulls him to sleep, and when he wakes up, he sees a changed world, a world he almost cannot recognize. What little of it remains, it is tainted by ugliness.

He looks at it with different eyes. One is an inhumane gold, dug from the depths of another world beyond the plane of the living.

_“Seijuro!”_

(Akashi goes to the graveyard of the Swans from time to time. The stone mounds amount to thousands.  Nothing can bring them back - certainly not his silent regret, and certainly not his uttered apologies-)

Midorima greets him at the door to the research facility he is assigned to. 

“Shintarou,” Akashi nods, “You wanted to speak to me.”

Midorima’s expression looks as if it is carved from stone.

“ _They’ve found him.”_

* * *

 

Midorima nods to the guards, who upon seeing Akashi, do not hesitate to open the doors.

Before the captivity of Swans, Japan did not have a major need for such research rooms. There had been clear ethical issues behind holding research subjects captive – though for humans, when they are exempt from the consequences, or at least, when they are not strictly involved in the process - the ethical issues then become a negligible concern.

Now, the rooms are numerous, all uniformly built, with walls and abstractly tiled floors that appear translucent blue. In the middle of the room, there is a laterally positioned capsule, with several tubes connected to life sustenance.

“Your father told them not to tell you, but I think you deserved to know.”

He is a shade paler than everything in the room, save for the dark patches that alienate themselves from the rest of his skin, a side effect that Akashi has seen in other Swans before, typically in the earlier stages of symptoms of the Plague. He knows, however, that it is only because Tetsuya is stronger than other Swans, that he has managed to hold out for such a long time.

And he knows that if Midorima has come to tell him, it must be bad.

“How long?”

“… It’s been more than half a year since he was brought in.”

Akashi does not say anything, but his eyes are livid. A sigh escapes his lips, as he feels the weight of the world.

Small pants escape from Kuroko's lips, and his wrists writhe beneath the restraints. He seems to live in a bubble, his sounds gone unheard by the outside world.

But then it happens. The bubble bursts, because Kuroko’s fists start pounding on the glass.      

“Tetsuya!”

“He will wake up soon.” Midorima says, “We can only watch for now.”

Kuroko opens his mouth to scream. Tears spring in his eyes, and despite the soundproof walls, Akashi hears it – he hears  _them,_ a cacophony of screaming and mourning. Pain. The crystal on the center of Kuroko’s circlet gleams, turning a shade of purple.

The other Swans are crying for him. He feels their pain as they feel his.

Akashi wants to hold his hand and tells him it’s going to be alright.

If anything, that sounds more like comfort to himself.

“Shintarou.”

Midorima listens.

“Tell them to have someone replace my patrol for the evening. I wish to be alone with Tetsuya for the night.”

And stay he does. Kuroko stops struggling at some point, reduced to a soundless sleep. Akashi keeps his eyes open for a large remainder of the night, until he decides that it is safe to dream. 

When he wakes up in the morning, there is something nudging his cheek. The hospital gown is empty, and the capsule is open. A swan is curled up on the metal surface. Morning has come.

“I missed you, Tetsuya.”

 Kuroko makes a sound that resembles crooning, and somehow, Akashi understands. There is longing in it, and relief.

_I waited for you._

It all comes rushing back, in a surge of emotion coated by memories. Kuroko, he seems to draw strength from Akashi’s presence, radiating his own light in a place with no windows. Clearly, under the light, his white feathers, though tainted with blood, glow a silver gleam.

* * *

“You have to understand, Seijuro-san. Your father placed strict orders not to be disturbed-“

“Surely this will take even more time if you prolong it, cadet.” Akashi says coolly, “Put him on the receiver.”

The boy, who can only be younger than Akashi by a few years, looks uneasily at his fellow cadet before they share nods.  Akashi rarely visits his father without any due appointment, though the look on his face prevents them from wanting to have any involvement whatsoever. Pressing a green button, they speak through the intercom.

“Masaomi-san, y-your son wishes to speak to you.”

Akashi’s gaze lingers. Eventually, the doors open for him. He walks into his father’s office, where there are several documents encased in folders placed on the long, mahogany desk, which surrounds his father in a protective semi-circle.  There are other guards in the room, higher-ranking ones, who with a nod from his father, leave the room, and are likely to stay put outside.

“Seijuro. You wish to speak to me?”

“Yes, father.” When the doors close, Akashi continues.

“Did you ever plan on telling me about Tetsuya?”

His eyes narrow into slits. Masaomi seems to scrutinize him before putting down his pen and providing a response.

“A pointless topic of conversation, then. If there is nothing else, I will have to ask you to leave.”

Akashi’s fingers curl at his sides. He has the sudden urge to maim his father, to make him look, to make him  _feel_  a fraction of the pain – not just his own, but Kuroko’s.

“You will take back what you said, in lieu of what little respect I have of you left.”

“He is nothing but a commodity like all of them, heir or not. Your interference is unnecessary, Seijuro. Had I known that your emotions would get in the way of your rationale, I would have birthed another son to succeed me instead.”

An empty laugh escapes his lips.

“And mother? Was she a commodity to you too?”   

At the mention of his late mother, Shiori, his father bristles. The tension in the air is palpable.

“You seemed more than eager to use her.”

Masaomi slams his palm on the desk. “ _Silence._  You would not understand.”

It is the most anger he has gotten out of his father, a clear sign of progress.

“If you are capable of making me understand, your words would hold meaning.” Akashi says, “It is a wonder that you are still alive. It says a lot about the type of person you really are.” He turns away, “Good day, father.” [1]

“This is not a world where you can love freely anymore, Seijuro. Remember that.”

Masaomi inputs a command that opens the doors. He does not expect his son to look back.

(He doesn’t.)

* * *

“How are you feeling?”

“I am fine, Akashi-kun.” He smiles thinly, “Has it really been six years?”

Akashi takes out the feather he keeps in his pocket like a badge of honor. He watches as Kuroko takes it in his hands, scarcely believing it. It is a relic of a treasured past, shared between the both of them. His gaze is tender, as he brushes a delicate thumb over the feather.

Akashi decides to bring up a feeling that’s been tugging at his gut for a long time, ever since a conversation he has had with Midorima. It is fact that Swans draw strength from their mates, and these mates are often documented in the database when identifiable - but Midorima claims that Kuroko entered the compound a mated Swan, and that to this day, he does not know who his mate actually is.

He is to understand that Swans choose who they are to be mated with. The typical indication of Swans being mated would be the evident silver gleam present on their wings.

“Am I your mate, Tetsuya?”

Kuroko’s head whips in his direction instantaneously. 

His head hangs down. “So you realized.”

Akashi has a vague idea of why Kuroko had chosen not to tell anyone. There is no one he could have trusted with such information anyway, though Akashi still does not understand. He knows that the researchers understand how tremendous the help offered by mates to their Swans truly is. Both sides would have benefited.

“They would use you, if they knew. So I kept it to myself.”

Akashi schools a troubled expression now. Almost as if reading his thoughts, Kuroko continues.

“I understood that… perhaps, I would never see you again, and that I would have to bear the consequences of my silence alone.” He smiles, brittle, blue meeting red and gold, “And that was fine for me. But now, things have changed. Because you’re here now.”

“You could have stayed.” Akashi whispers. A feather for years apart, a goodbye to last him forever.

“I had an obligation to fulfill, and while I could have chosen to hide from it forever, it wouldn’t have been right.”

“And they would have found you.”  _They would have taken you away from me._

Kuroko nods.

_They already have._

“It is not too late.”  

“Yes.”

A shiver racks Kuroko’s body. He pulls Akashi into an embrace, tears brimming in his eyes as he takes in Akashi’s scent, his warmth - never wanting to let go.

“You’re just in time.”

* * *

 Most of the Swans sing to death, till their voices are hoarse and their throats are empty boxes. They surrender to the fact that what awaits them is a life within walls, and that their place in the world is to lay down their lives for ‘the greater good’.

Their true intentions are not questioned, but instead, subdued by force. Humans make it clear that Swans do not have a choice in the matter.

Kuroko gives them a voice. The researchers decide to use the situation to their advantage – the Swans get better treatment, the humans get more benefits… so long as Kuroko is there, compliant, obedient.

As a result, Kuroko is led to different rooms several times a day to use his healing gift, almost thrice the original amount he’d been given. It approaches the point wherein he almost collapses, and Akashi has to be there to relieve him of the strain.

There are about 6.3 billion humans in the world, a third of whom are diagnosed with the Black Plague – men, women, children. Initially 7 billion, approximately 700 million humans have died from the Black Plague in the duration of the past two years.

Opposed to Swans, whose population initially amounted to 70 000, has been reduced to a meager 10 000. They share the same fate, all of them. With the small amount of Swans, a small percentage of which is mated - not everyone can be saved.      

With these figures, it will seem, at first, that Akashi and Kuroko’s love for each other should thus be considered a godsend.

This is not far from the truth.

It builds a cage around them, however – they are kept under close watch, until night strikes, and Swans no longer sing in human form, cocooning themselves into a world that is very different from the one they live in.

The cage is one that Akashi and Kuroko plan to break out together. This is a solemn promise that Akashi makes in the graveyard – he will not stand to see Kuroko buried there. The living corpses, they may cling to Kuroko’s feet and beg for salvation, but he cannot let them drag Kuroko down. Kuroko looks at them with compassion, and tells them it will be alright.

Akashi hopes for that too.

“You don’t look well, Akashi-kun.”

“Is that so?”

Kuroko looks at him, concerned. “Do you feel any pain?”

Akashi locks their lips together. Kuroko leans into his touch, hands playing with Akashi’s hair, clinging to the fabric of Akashi’s clothes. Akashi is what is constant in his world. He knows this, wants to protect what they have and keep it that way.  _At least this. Let us have this, at least._

Akashi presses their foreheads together. “If I did,” He says, “I would let you know.”

The world continues to move after that, in an almost sluggish pace.

Until one day, it falls on its heels, or at least, Akashi does – his body falls to the ground, and he feels wings cushioning his head before completely losing consciousness.

It happens at day. Kuroko follows as Akashi is led to a room, laid on a recliner and scanned for abnormalities in his system. A long beep cuts through the orders exchanged between the practitioners.

_Plague positive._

Kuroko’s world stops. They tell him to try, because surely, he can heal Akashi, like how he has with many others. Once he does, he closes his eyes, unfolding his wings. He remembers thinking that Akashi’s eyes might never open again. His breath hitches, but he sings anyway.

He sings - again, and again, and again, but it doesn’t work. Not one time.

Grief stricken horror grips his heart.  _It can’t reach him._ He hovers above Akashi, whose eyes are tight shut, his hands at his sides. The researchers and medics vanish from sight. It doesn’t matter that Masaomi is at the door, looking like he just ran. _It’s not reaching him. It’s not…_

“What happened here?”

“Sir, look at this, please.”

They show Masaomi a chart of Akashi’s brain. Masaomi’s eyes light up in understanding. Kuroko watches silently, having no other option in his hands.

“It’s the first time this has happened… the virus has mutated.”

* * *

_The full moon smiles down on one of the many music rooms in the Akashi manor, the sound of piano keys being played reverberating and seeming as if to come alive with a night breeze that moves the tendrils framing the windowsill. Skilled hands temper down on the keys, the melody that is produced reminiscent of days in the sun. Faintly, one could almost hear the sound of laughter._

  _“That’s Shiori-san’s song, isn’t it?” Kuroko asks after Akashi is done playing, taking a seat beside him._

_Akashi’s fingers absentmindedly brush against the keys. They make no sound._

_“I am thankful I can play, so that I may hear it again. However, it simply isn’t the same.” Akashi lets his hand hold Kuroko’s. “It sounds superficial, compared to hers.”_

_Kuroko doesn’t have the heart to leave Akashi. He never has._

_“And you,” Akashi’s eyes mirror his own, but even more than that, they stare deep into him, stripping down his layers, one by one. “You will leave.”_

_“I’m sorry.” Kuroko means it. He has come to love Akashi, has even given him his heart without Akashi being aware of it. “Do you want to hear mine?”_

_Every Swan’s song is different._

_Their song of mourning though, it is the same for all of them._

* * *

Kuroko can’t even be with Akashi the entire day. He feels himself slowly weakening without Akashi’s touch too. Their connection is strong, yet also feeble, because he cannot keep Akashi close to him.

Sometimes, he’s thankful for the moments away from Akashi too, because the apologetic look on Akashi’s face always breaks him.

His song doesn’t sound the same to him anymore. In Swan form, the song doesn’t just come from their throats – their entire body sings, and it should come as naturally as breathing. But now, it’s empty, purposive, and when he sees the thankful looks on the patients’ faces, he wishes it could be Akashi instead.  _This is all my fault, all my fault-_

They don’t tie a collar to his neck when they lead him to the rooms anymore. They’re almost afraid, really.

They cannot bring to lose him too, but they will, eventually.

* * *

In the middle of the night, the most unexpected visitor comes – not Reo or Midorima, but certainly a familiar face.

At the very least, Kuroko should expect it, because surely, no one can be so heartless – not even him.

“I had thought that your kind could work miracles.”

Kuroko doesn’t turn around.

“Was I wrong?”

It is almost taunting, but maybe he is imagining things.

That would be ironic, Kuroko thinks, for a man who thinks he’s always right. It’s almost repulsive that what comes over him is shame, because he had failed his one sole reason for existence. Masaomi makes this very clear. It all feels meaningless to him, and Akashi’s life can slip through his fingers if he doesn’t hold onto him strongly enough. Even if he does…

“Is that all you have to say, Masaomi-san?” He looks at him, at the father of his mate - trying to look for a semblance of pain, anything remotely human. He wants to scream, really. Akashi is too tired for this – if anything, Masaomi is fortunate that Akashi isn’t awake. Perhaps it is true the other way around too.

Masaomi doesn’t answer for a time, only settling to have a closer look at Akashi. Kuroko is thankful Masaomi doesn’t try to touch Akashi. He might not be able to restrain himself.

But it is unfair for Masaomi to be the target of his anger, because Akashi needs him too, grudging as it is to admit.

“Do you believe in miracles, boy?”

He’s lost.

He doesn’t know what to do.

“I want to, sir.”

* * *

Considering how Japan’s patients have declined, and there are more uncured cases in other countries, some of them will have to be deported.

Kuroko isn’t one of them.

“Doesn’t it ever get boring, Tetsuya?”

Kuroko shows no sign of hearing what Akashi said.

“They haven’t found a cure, Akashi-kun.” His fists clench up. “How can you be so calm?” His chest heaves, and he feels like the breath has been knocked out of him. Akashi’s hand moves to wipe the tears threatening to fall.

“I do not fear death. It is merely a new beginning, is it not?”

When Kuroko doesn’t say anything to respond to this, Akashi smiles.

“It isn’t the end, Tetsuya.” He says gently. “Let’s leave this world, you and I. Wouldn’t that be a fitting ending to what we have started?”

Together. This time around, Akashi is determined to see through his promise.

Together has a nice ring to it.

The final days will be hard.  

* * *

 When Kuroko encounters fellow Swans in the corridor, their fingers brush against each other. Brief looks are exchanged. He knows what they are trying to do, and for that, he is thankful. A matriarch even offers words of comfort, or at least, they’re supposed to be words of comfort.

“Your sacrifice will not be in vain.”

Perhaps it is almost merciful, that mates are the Achilles’ heel of Swans. Taking away their mates is like taking away their ability to fly, because what is freedom with the shadow of death behind it?

* * *

 It is the start of a new year. Fireworks decorate the sky in all sorts of colors, a garden welcoming the coming of spring, even though it is months away. As usual, people who have been fully cured are taken back to their families.

More Swans are buried. Some humans are, too, because they didn’t make it.

 “They’re handing these out.”

Senko hanabi.

“Isn’t it nostalgic? I thought you might like them.”

The sparks die out eventually, but they are beautiful while they last.

He kneels in front of the grave, voice drowned out by the noise.

“Happy New Year, Akashi-kun.”

He can pretend, can’t he?

* * *

_“Masaomi.”_

_His wife is a shadow of what she used to be, and yet._

_She pulls him closer. “Let them take me. It is only a matter of time.”_

_Shiori had never been his to take. It wasn’t right that Shiori thought that she was his to give._

_A heart given too early. Masaomi despises whoever has Shiori’s life in their hands._

_“…And what of Seijuro?”_

_At the mention of her son, Shiori’s gaze softens. She looks at the world through a glassy film. The scene that she sees for her son isn’t a bright one. It speaks of her many regrets as a woman, and a mother._

_Once, she’d been a girl, and she’d made her fair share of mistakes. The price had been high – she would never have guessed that it would lead to this moment._

_“Guide him.”_

_Masaomi sighs. “He is stubborn.”_

_“It is unfortunate that Tetsuya-kun will not be able to stay with him.” Shiori allows, “He won’t have anyone else but you. I hope you understand, Masaomi.”_

_Masaomi has no way of making Shiori stronger than she already is, and for that, he wallows in guilt, so much that it drowns him._

_It is when he sees his son’s mate fight for something he loves dearly many years later that he is reminded of his own self, lost in a place that had once been familiar._

* * *

**_Swan Song: Agape_ **

* * *

Kuroko, past the black, can still remember the curve of Akashi’s lips, the light in his eyes – no one remembers them as much as he does, as they conduct the funeral service. The smell of flowers is present in the air, alongside the leftover smell of mud after a strong rain.

 It’s the most time they’ve taken in seeing someone off, as soldiers of different ranks stand in orderly lines like watchful sentinels, their lips a uniform grim line.

Eulogies are recited. Midorima is one of the people to deliver them, considering he’d been one of the people who’d known Akashi a bit better. Kuroko declines to write his own if the words will not come out of his own mouth anyway. In broad daylight, Kuroko wishes to take off into the air and roam the skies, in search of something.

Every day lived is a day closer to death, a day closer to him.

* * *

 

The next day, flowers are left on the bed where Akashi used to lie. They are bound to die, eventually, beautifully crafted gifts of nature rashly picked from the soil they’d been sowed in, their petals rusting at the edges. Wildflowers - handpicked by a soldier, maybe.

Blood drips from his chin as he coughs, blots appearing in his vision. The metal floor bites into his hands like ice.

Flower shops don’t make a living anymore – no one finds it in their hearts to give flowers in such grim times. Flowers are reserved for mourning instead. In the living, in a different world, would Akashi have given him flowers? Would they have led a normal life, settling down and adopting children of their own?

Kuroko holds on to the feather that Akashi used to hide in his breast pocket. Akashi’s hands had trembled, giving this to him. He couldn’t steady them, and now, he can’t even steady his own.

A feather for years apart, a goodbye to last him forever.

“Let’s go, Kuroko-san.”

* * *

Till the last one, they say. Kuroko starts to recognize more faces. They brand themselves into his mind, because he is sure that years from now, these people will be rebuilding their lives and starting anew. They are the fortunate ones. Maybe they will remember him as just another face, and that’s alright.

He struggles when night strikes, when he is alone in the room where Akashi used to be. It’s his room, then. It’s  _theirs_ , as Kuroko inhales the scent of one of Akashi’s coats, trying to keep the pain at bay, caused by the symptoms of the Plague that consume him, bit by bit. He recedes farther into memory, into that manor where they hid away from the world.

And he decides that he will wait, just like Akashi did for him.

* * *

A few months later, when Japan’s well and done with the plague, he doesn’t move to die someplace else. When they set him free, he chooses to stay where Akashi is close. He never quite puts that part of his life behind him, but Japan does, trying to recover from its wounds, burying away whatever sins of the past under pure, white snow.

Kuroko lives to see spring. He only wishes Akashi had too.

Under Masaomi’s request, Kuroko stays at the Akashi manor. The manor is hallowed and empty, different from how it used to be. He roams, lingering in places where remnants of their shared childhood are present, left to be uncovered.

When he makes his way to the grand piano, he plays broken notes that hold no meaning. They will reach Akashi this time. Akashi will even tell him how it should be done.

Akashi had given him this life. To stay in this world, it is to see Akashi in every single piece of it, to remember the hand that held him in his darkest moments - to remember a man who could have lived, if it weren’t for him.

* * *

He cannot bring to forgive himself, for all he’s done, but Masaomi doesn’t blame him for anything.

“Seijuro would want you to have this.”

Masaomi observes the feather. Raw emotion flashes in his eyes.

“It is something of mine. It has no place in what awaits us.”

“I never had the chance to properly say thank you.” Masaomi says, “It is long due. My son… he probably does not blame you for anything at all.”

“Do you?” Kuroko asks weakly.

Masaomi shakes his head. “My son had lived his life to the fullest, and it is because of you.”

“Did he…”

Cherry blossom petals scatter in the wind, falling to the ground.

_The world is beautiful from here, Akashi-kun._

He closes his eyes.

_I can finally see you._

* * *

 

Swans sing of their prince and of his lover, and of how they will never be apart from each other again, taking solace in greater skies.

 

* * *

   

 

**Author's Note:**

> [1]- Akashi is referring to how Masaomi is Shiori’s mate. How he is alive kind of is Akashi trying to hint at how he “didn’t care for Shiori”, because mates of swans typically suffer from heartbreak after their Swan dies.  
> Just to clear things up tho, SHIORI IS NOT MASAOMI’S MATE. Akashi doesn’t know this. This is why she had “given her heart too early” and even though Masaomi loved her, he couldn’t heal her while she was feeling weak, unlike how Akashi did for Kuroko earlier into the story. Masaomi rlly couldn’t have done anything orz :”D  
> FUN FACT OF THE DAY: Shiori’s mate is a girl. Her family disapproved of the match, and she was married off to Masaomi, who she came to love either way.  
> Thank you for reading!


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